Having read the account of the lovely Mrs. Brady purchasing an evil high powered sniper rifle as a gift for her son and seen her both derided for typical gun snatching commie hypocrisy and applauded for providing an "off the paper" weapon to her son through a straw purchase, I got to wondering about what really constitutes a straw purchase.

It was my understanding that a transaction is considered a straw purchase when it is known by the purchasing party that the ultimate recipient of the weapon is prohibited by law from possessing it.  

I didn't spend too long poring over the details of what Brady did, but from what I recall the rifle was intended as a gift to her son...is it now illegal to gift weapons?  

I'm referring to federal law...part of my problem is that I have to spend so much of my time figuring out PRK law that the feds almost seem nice in comparison.  When I filled out my paperwork for my Fab 10 at the SAn Jose gun show this weekend I checked the obligatory "Are you the actual purchaser blah blah blah" (or whatever it said) box on the 4473.  What if I was a grandpa wanting to buy something to give grandsonny for his college graduation or birthday or something?

So, assuming that the intended recipient is otherwise permitted to posess the given weapon, does purchasing one with the intention of giving it as a present constitute and illegal straw purchase?  Does it matter if the intended recipient is related to the buyer?

In the state she gave the gun to her son in it was illegal.  However, I think that because she gave it to family it wasn't considered a straw purchase, I forget.

Basically in the end she possibly got in trouble because of something she helped create that is nearly impossible to follow.